"Blackened Eyes" by Leigh *Shwin* Erickson

The blackening of death’s eyes came

when once in face of rape and flame

an innocent too young to die

was taken by the Artist’s eye

to the next life where she found peace

in freedom and in grief’s release

when of those mourning her three came

to be with her in death’s stanch claim

her loss to them too much to bear

that in their pain they lost all care

for life and brought the Artist’s hand

to them, scarce could they understand

that by their choice sharp blades of grief

would be unleashed and find their sheath

in many who now wept and mourned

those three live; and in black adorned

they cursed death’s choice and felt such pain

that death, aware, could not remain

impassive to their anguished cries

and watch with blank, unseeing eyes

that showed no pity, saw no wrong

in fashioning a wailing throng

of mourners; Now he saw the tears

that filled bleak hearts for endless years

He felt such sorrow for their race

that many tears fell to embrace

his curse, a grief too long ignored

by he who weaknesses abhorred

yet now confronted with the guilt

of all the tears and lifebloods spilt

he was wracked with intense harsh pain

that will alone could not restrain

that filled all spaces and destroyed

the substances that stayed the void

of nothing which life tried to fill

and thus fell prey to grief’s first kill

Life n’er again from darkness rose

but in revenge its resting chose

to rot and burn in blackened eyes

that ached with grief and brought demise

to all mortals who dared to peer

into their pools of hate and fear